Tropica, 7-8 years old (I've had her over 5 years-she was a rescue and was at least 2, possibly 3 when I adopted her).

Just 'not right', sluggish almost. Not excited about veggie time and would not voluntarily go to them. Once in front of them though, she would eat, but had early sateity. Small amount of weight loss but so slow it in itself did not concern me with her age and all.

Took her to the vet with another guinea pig just to get checked out. Ultrasound revealed large abdominal vessels. Heart enlarged, EKG/echo showed a heart rate of 328 and cardiac function of 20%. No fluid in lungs or abdomen. She also had thickened bladder walls so we started Septra.

On Enalapril (1/4 of a 2.5 mg tab daily) since Saturday. No change in behavior yet (3 doses so far). We go back on Friday for a recheck.

According to Tropica's cardiac ultrasound her heart function is almost normal after 1 week on enalapril, couldn't much argue for a change in meds with those results. Unfortunately, I still see no change in behavior. Wonder what is up with that?

Mr. Piggy has been on benazapril and furosemide for a couple of weeks now. We started .2 ml of furosemide first then added the benazapril.

I want to ask about the dosage of benazapril. It is compounded at 4mg/ml and he is getting .25 ml twice daily. Is this high?

Also, I have cut the furosemide back to .15 ml. He still seems to be doing well. His breathing isn't as labored and the scary hooty sounds have disappeared. He is so much more active right now and prefers to be free range rather than in his cage. He can get in and out of it on his own so I let him do his thing!

2 - brief description of symptoms
* sudden onset of very laboured breathing
* off food, sitting depressed in one corner
* always a very heavy-set guinea pig, she slowly lost about 220g over a period of 8 months (we did not notice first as we were told by our vet that she was a bit to heavy and should loose a bit weight for her health. She weighted 1'380g at her peak)

5 - other med issues
* from little on she had an allergy to certain hay and wood shavings (don't use it anymore)
* pea-eyed

6 - other observations
* Ginger had a very (!) healthy appetite and could not rest until she finished all the fresh food in the cage - even the left-overs from the others and even when it looked like that she was really not hungry anymore (that's why I called her also Pumkin, she was round and orange)
* she was not a laid-back lap-guinea. Ginger was actually very lively and would jump around - especially for her food
* She was a great singer. Sometimes it was triggered by being nervous or stressed (too much house-cleaning for example) and sometimes I don't know what started it but we would here her about once a week doing her guinea-song.

Ginger fell very suddenly ill when I noticed her sitting very quietly in corner with her fur fluffed up. They day before she had still been literally jumping around and enjoying her food (and that of the others). As this was on a Sunday (2nd August 2009) we went to the emergency services of our vet where Ginger was diagnosed with possible pneumonia and prescribed Baytril. This did not show any effect and we took her to see our vet again the next day.
I don't know why but I had the suspicion that the issue is not an URI but that there was something else causing these symptons and researched as much as possible on heart problems. Although I took plenty of print outs with me to the vet, they decided to continue her on the Baytril. However, after Ginger showed no signs of improvement the next day, the vet agreed that her heart could be the underlying cause and took x-rays. These showed so much fluid in her chest that her hear was not visible on the picture. Poor Ginger's lungs had to struggle against all that water. She was immediately put on Frumeside to first clear the fluid. The vet also ordered an ACE inhibitor (I think Fortekor but I am not sure anymore) to start Ginger on the next day.
Ginger seemed to struggle a tiny bit less during that evening and night. She even went to sit close to our guinea-boy Teddy when I checked how she was doing during the night. But she seemed also like drifting and not really there. When we went to her early in the morning she was just dying. It was so terrible to stay calm to give her strength and peace but she did not seem to suffer anymore. It was so quick. Just 4 days.

Well after a 6 week battle with Pneumonia and changing antibiotics after 3 weeks, Ginsing was diagnosed yesterday with an enlarged heart. The x-rays show it pushing on the trachea and lungs. While always a 900 gram piggie she started a rapid weight loss about 2 months ago and started a wet crackling wheezing.

She was quarentined and has been on meds and and CC since. SHe seems to eat and drink well and gets around fine we just cannot get her weight back up.
She is now on Baytril, Furosemide and Aminophylloine. She has been with us for about a year or so and we think her age is about 3.5 years give or take.

We have out fingers crossed that she will show a little improvement with the new meds, I don't think she will go back with her 8 cage mates at this time but if she is feeling better I would really like to see her back with her herd if possible.

Why is she on Baytril? Sounds tlike the pneumonia is misdiagnosed heart problems.

I'm not familiar with Aminophylloine but believe she should be on Fortekor and possibly also vetmedin.

I don't see any reason to keep her quarantined if she doesn't have pneumonia. Pigs with pneumonia do not eat and drink well or move around much. Also pneumonia that does not respond to treatment tends to kill them within days.

The antibiotic was for her pneumonia which has fianally cleared up, I am going to let her finish the course to ensure she is OK.

She is responding well to the medications now, the catch in her breathing seems to be gone and she is eating like a pig.

Her x-rays showed that the lung field was clear but, the heart had been pressing on her lungs so she could not get a deep breath. She will go back in a couple days for a new x-ray to see how the meds are doing.

Well there seems to be no complications to the medications and Ginsing has gained about 30 grams this week. SHe is moving around more and seems altogether happier. We are all very happy here we were so worried about her.
Ginsing eating her CC this morning. 714 grams today!

Which is why with pigs it is imperative to treat the symptoms. Often you won't get a diagnosis until death. The benefits of a heart med trial totally outweigh the extremely remote chance of a reaction to heart meds in an "undiagnosed" pig.